Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

Ill repost this from last year because it looks like it can answer some questions. There is also a link in there from where I got the fittings

With PVC you can build just about any shape and size structure you want. Use your imagination. 10' PVC pipes were about $3 a piece. Connectors range anywhere from $.30 - $4. Had to order a couple of them online @ http://flexpvc.com/ .The only thing you really need is a hack saw, which was about $7. Everything else slips into place. Im planning on duct taping joints for strength when set up.

You can bend PVC into curves or whatever shape you need with heat. Once it cools it will hold. To make the bends I boiled water, capped both ends and filled with a funnel. Bent around some stakes I put in the ground and let cool. Every piece will come out exactly the same. When completed I would suggest numbering or color coding the pieces for ease of setup later.

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

Originally Posted by Deforel

One of the biggest worry about canopies seems to be it not having stakes and being blown away. But I thought why not just put the canopy legs in cinderblocks, do you think that would provide enough stabilization?

Cinderblocks are like a buck each and weigh 20+ lbs. For example:

& this

Or do you think the wind could still bend the poles/knock it over?

This option is just a lot cheaper, the canopy is $100 on academy.com, just amazon has a better pic

i was walking through Home Depot the other day and thought of this as well. I'm pretty certain they would work just as well as any weight systems built for canopies to keep it grounded. My concern is that they are sharp and could be a hazard if a drunk person in my very large camping group trips on them...

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

Originally Posted by Deforel

Theeng72 and Janks,

I'm going to get some battery power for my campsite and was just going to go with a car battery or 2 since it will be much cheaper. I'm bad with this whole watts/voltage thing but it'll be used for mostly speakers and phone charging.

Got logitech s751i, says the power rating is AC 5W per channel RMS, so probably ~30hrs of this during the weekend and phones take a pretty minimal charge.

I'll test it myself too once it gets closer to the date but think a regular car battery will do? I can charge it back up with my car throughout the weekend to I guess...

Regular car batteries aren't made to be drained that much. You will loose some power through the inverter as well which you will need. With a Deep Cycle you can run down to 20% no problem.

Look at your amp power. 115 x 20 = 2300 Watts / .80 = 1840 of usable Wattage give or take. So say it pulls 20 Watts / Hour that 92 hours of run time. If you're going to buy a battery might as well just spend the extra $20 and get one you know will last.

Get a couple 15 Watt LED lights to run at night as well for your camp site and you will have plenty of power for the weekend. (36 hours) You can always charge them from your car for a bit to give you a little extra juice. Just mind where your neighbors are sitting. No one wants to be sitting behind your car for 30 minutes..

If you have a multi meter bring it as well. Good chances your inverter will not run below 50% of the battery. So a charge will be needed.

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

Originally Posted by NachoCat

Ill repost this from last year because it looks like it can answer some questions. There is also a link in there from where I got the fittings…

With PVC you can build just about any shape and size structure you want. Use your imagination. 10' PVC pipes were about $3 a piece. Connectors range anywhere from $.30 - $4. Had to order a couple of them online @ http://flexpvc.com/ .The only thing you really need is a hack saw, which was about $7. Everything else slips into place. I’m planning on duct taping joints for strength when set up.

You can bend PVC into curves or whatever shape you need with heat. Once it cools it will hold. To make the bends I boiled water, capped both ends and filled with a funnel. Bent around some stakes I put in the ground and let cool. Every piece will come out exactly the same. When completed I would suggest numbering or color coding the pieces for ease of setup later.

also is there any point to having a bottom frame for your structure? i feel like if you have proper staking it shouldn't make a difference?

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

to follow up on my monkey hut, we had the dimensions for a 12x15 hut but it staked it at 10x15 feet wide because we were using it over two spots and didn't know in which direction we would have the two spots..we went week 1 with the winds and as far as staking goes we pre-drilled holes at the bottom of each pvc piece at like 3 different angles to put metal stakes into the ground and did that on the 4 inside legs but on the 4 corner legs we still used rebar used rebar on the four corners and despite the winds all through saturday night and all day and/night sunday not even the stakes were in jeopardy of being pulled out.

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

Speaking of flagpoles, what do you use? I've heard a few different ideas from those extendable pool cleaner handles to sch 40 PVC to an actual portable flagpole (that costs way too much). We used standard pvc last year and it ended up breaking in the Saturday night wind. We may have gone a bit too tall... 20+ ft I think.

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

I think PVC flagpoles max out around 16' anything taller than that will be too floppy in the wind. I was planning on using 2x 8' PVC Pieces with a connector and drill a hole through it to stake it down.

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

I believe we tried 3x 6' PVC pieces with connectors, possibly 8' but I don't think it was that tall. It looked majestic but was bending pretty hard in the wind and finally snapped on the 3rd night. We had wrapped an EL wire around it just in case, and duct taped it to the side of our EZ up, so it would fall onto our EZ ups instead of get blown into someone's head. Someone recommended thicker PVC but maybe we just need to be a little less ambitious with the height.

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

Just buy this. I got lucky and camped next to a fence last year so I tied this to the fence and showered under it, but this year i'm planning on building a wood plank i can hang this off of and ratchet strap it to my roof rack with a kidde pool under it so you don't get the ground all wet. There are options with pressure but they get expensive.

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

Originally Posted by enginedown

Speaking of flagpoles, what do you use? I've heard a few different ideas from those extendable pool cleaner handles to sch 40 PVC to an actual portable flagpole (that costs way too much). We used standard pvc last year and it ended up breaking in the Saturday night wind. We may have gone a bit too tall... 20+ ft I think.

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

We had three spots actually, so it worked out. We didn't show up planning to do this, it just fell into place. BUT, I like to think they'd have let us be back to back if we had two spots and asked nicely

He sold his soul for a shot at fame
Catchphrase and wigs and the jokes are lame...

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

Yes last year i planned to set up four cars back to back like that, no issue at all. I say, if you are unhappy with your spot pull around and jump back in line and then offer all your goodies to the folks who let you cut totally worth it to not get a spot by porto potties or the end of the street

Re: Camp Site Innovations Thread

Originally Posted by Kindoy

Has anyone made their own portable shower in previous years that works pretty well and if so how?

I'm sure I could figure it out but that requires thinking

We share a solar shower with the people that we camp with (they bought it and we've used it the past two years, this will be the third). You can set it up to actually shower you, but what we ended up doing to save time/hassle was bringing jugs of water that we left in the sun, and then pouring them over ourselves when we took showers. It does the trick! You really just need a place to be naked without people seeing you, which is what we used the "shower" for.

Originally Posted by NachoCat

Ill repost this from last year because it looks like it can answer some questions. There is also a link in there from where I got the fittings…

With PVC you can build just about any shape and size structure you want. Use your imagination. 10' PVC pipes were about $3 a piece. Connectors range anywhere from $.30 - $4. Had to order a couple of them online @ http://flexpvc.com/ .The only thing you really need is a hack saw, which was about $7. Everything else slips into place. I’m planning on duct taping joints for strength when set up.

You can bend PVC into curves or whatever shape you need with heat. Once it cools it will hold. To make the bends I boiled water, capped both ends and filled with a funnel. Bent around some stakes I put in the ground and let cool. Every piece will come out exactly the same. When completed I would suggest numbering or color coding the pieces for ease of setup later.

Thanks for this! My boyfriend ended up making something similar for our campsite. Question: what kind of fabric did you use in the doorway? I'm looking up a couple different options but am interested in what you used.

Originally Posted by Newro7ic

Lakers fans are some of the most delusional people in the world, I swear.

my name is casey. i love pavement and i want to pet every dog in the world.